Jacque Vaughn drew on his experiences as Magic training camp opened

As the hours inched closer to his first practice as an NBA head coach, Jacque Vaughn received a question from his wife, Laura. She asked whether he felt nervous. No, he answered. Not at all.

It helped that Vaughn felt prepared. He had thought back to the practices Roy Williams, Jerry Sloan, Doc Rivers and Gregg Popovich put him through as a player and to the practices he saw Popovich run the last two years in San Antonio. Vaughn even remembered something John Stockton, his former Utah Jazz teammate, used to say: "Work me hard, can't work me long. Work me long, can't work me hard."

Vaughn drew on those lessons Tuesday as he put the Orlando Magic through their first two practices of the 2012-13 season. The morning session lasted exactly one hour, 45 minutes — just how Vaughn planned it. Players scrimmaged during the evening session.

"I think if I was to pull from one of my mentors, it would be Coach Williams," Vaughn said. "He was the most efficient coach I've been around. His practice plans were pretty much to the minute. I've taken that, and it was a good session as far as efficiency today."

Vaughn and Magic players still are in the midst of a feeling-out period that could take days, weeks or a few months to complete. The biggest difficulty Vaughn, his young coaching staff and their players face is unfamiliarity; the team not only has a brand-new set of coaches, but it also has 12 new players to go along with just seven returnees.

The coaches spent the morning introducing their offensive and defensive concepts and discussing how they'll handle various situations.

But the former point guard also planned for a coaching career during his 12-year stint as an NBA player. He kept a notebook in which he jotted down ideas culled from Williams, Sloan, Rivers and Popovich; over the last few days, he reviewed those pages.

"You take different pieces from those seasons and you use what's conducive for us," Vaughn said. "I think setting the tone is a common denominator. For me, that tone is defensively. That's how we have to play and we have to guard every night. So if there was an overall theme, it'd be how we're going to play defensively."

After the morning practice ended, he assembled his five assistant coaches — James Borrego, Wes Unseld Jr., Brett Gunning, Laron Profit and Luke Stuckey — at midcourt and asked them for feedback: Did the practice run too long? Was it efficient? What changes needed to be made for the evening practice?

Vaughn pledges he will listen to his players' suggestions, too. But like any coach, he expects them to listen to him, too.

He has said he won't call every play on the offensive end of the court.

"I think it's great," said shooting guard Arron Afflalo, one of the Magic's new players.

"Players need freedom to be creative. Basketball's a very creative game. More importantly, when defenses in this league try to scout you, you don't want to be predictable."

And Vaughn said he won't be predictable either.

Asked what his style will be like — whether he'll tend to pat players on the back or tend to scream — he said he'll vary his methods.

As Tuesday's second practice wound down around 7 p.m., Vaughn huddled his coaches together again.

The first day of his first training-camp as an NBA head coach had almost ended, and he didn't plan to look back and savor what had happened.

"You just continue on," he said. "You grind. That's what I've been taught, and it's worked for me."